a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic musical instrument and more particularly relates to an electronic musical instrument suitable for generating parameters for controlling musical tones of a rubbed string instrument or a wind instrument with no use of bow-string combinations, reeds, or the like.
b) Description of the Related Art
Most of real time performance manipulators of electronic musical instruments have been made of keyboards. A keyboard has a plurality of keys corresponding to respective pitches. When a key of the keyboard is depressed, a key switch associated with the depressed key is closed (set to "make") to generate a pitch signal corresponding to the pitch assigned with the depressed key.
As means for controlling the effect of generated musical tones, there are means using transverse and longitudinal vibration of the whole of the keyboard, what is called a pitch bend wheel, which controls a pitch of tone rotating motion, provided in the vicinity of a side of the keyboard, and a after-touch, (which control musical tone parameters by pressure, force and so on applied on a key after key-depression) control in which the keyboard is pushed down to its lowermost position in use.
Those electronic musical instruments equipped with such a keyboard are suitable to simulate the tones of keyboard instruments such as a piano, an organ, etc.
Other electronic musical instruments include a guitar synthesizer, a wind controller, etc. The guitar synthesizer is suitable to simulate the musical tones of a guitar. The wind controller is suitable to simulate the musical tones of wind instruments.
A rubbed string instrument such as a violin determines the pitches of musical tones based on the position of the string pressing finger on the fingerboard and changes the expression of the musical tones in a variety of ways, based on the speed of the string rubbing bow and the pressure of the string pressing bow. One of the musical tone effects peculiar to the rubbed string instrument is "vibrato" in which a vibratory pitch is formed by vibrating the string pressing finger at the position of the finger on the fingerboard.
Other musical tone effects include "tremolo" forming a vibratory volume instead of a vibratory pitch, "celeste" bringing about a phase variation to thereby generate a beat, "chorus", etc.
Further, with respect to a wind instrument for generating the musical tone in accordance with the breath pressure and embouchure (representing the posture, closure, etc., of the lips) as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Sho-63-40199, the information required for controlling musical tones varies according to the execution, such as tonguing execution, long tone execution, with which the tonguing is not accomplished, etc.
When the musical tones of such a rubbed string instrument are to be simulated by an electronic musical instrument, it is possible to generally consider two ways.
One is a method in which basic performance manipulators of a rubbed string instrument such as a bow, strings and a fingerboard are directly used, and, for example, the vibration of a string is transformed into an electric signal which is processed electronically. The other is a method in which, without using a bow, strings and a fingerboard, etc. of the natural rubbed string instrument, manipulators such as a keyboard, etc., different from those of the natural rubbed string instrument are used as the basic performance manipulators to thereby simulate musical tones based on the performance of such manipulators.
When a bow, strings and a fingerboard similar to those of the natural musical instrument are used as the performance manipulators to cause actual vibrations of a string according to the one method, a rubbed string electronic instrument capable of achieving performance rich in expression can be realized. Of course, effect control such as "vibrato" can be made. However, the performance using the performance manipulators similar to those of the natural rubbed string instrument requires techniques of a high grade and long-term exercise for its mastering. Therefore, those who are not well-trained in performance techniques cannot enjoy the performance of the rubbed string instrument.
According to the other method, for example, the harmonics construction of the basic tone-colors of the violin is preliminarily studied to enable the basic musical tones to be synthesized electronically. Then, the tones of the violin, etc. are generated in response to the keyboard manipulation. The tone of the violin can change its musical expression in a variety of ways according to its bow speed, bow pressure, etc. while the bow is in contact with the string. Further, effect control such as "vibrato" can be added thereto. However, in the keyboard input electronic instrument, it is difficult to control the way of tone generation, the continuous change of the tone, the expression thereof, the effect thereof, etc. exactly according to the player's will. Further, the keyboard input electronic instrument cannot be manipulated easily.
In the electronic musical instrument of the type in which effects such as "vibrato", etc. are controlled by the displacement of the keyboard, manipulation may be made easily. However, in the case of a touch responsive keyboard, when effect control is to be made after hitting a key intensively, the keyboard may be transversely or longitudinally vibrated against the player's will. There arises a problem in that an exact pitch cannot be obtained when a key is hit intensively.
In the case of a pitch bend wheel, one hand is required for the operation of the wheel. There arises a problem in that the degree of freedom in performance is narrowed and manipulation cannot be made easily.
Vibrato control by touch such as after-touch control has a problem in that effect control is made regardless of the player's will when a key is hit intensively.
In the case of a guitar synthesizer, a wind controller, etc., tones similar to those of specific tone generators (a guitar, a wind instrument) can be controlled easily because the tone generation form thereof is similar to that of the specific tone generators. However, other musical tones are not natural when, for example, effect control is made to simulate tones of a rubbed string instrument. When effect control is to be made to simulate tones of such an instrument, manipulation cannot be made easily.
As described above, the keyboard type electronic musical instruments according to the conventional techniques have limitations in musical tone effect control and are not always easy to manipulate.